Friday, November 17, 2006

My Obsession with Hats Continues.

This blue one is pretty simple. And the so is the baby hat that didn’t photograph well--Two experimental hats didn’t work, and were frogged back to nothingness.There are other idea’s for more hats that are still fermenting. And some prototypes are being reknit, with minor refinements.Most of the hats are documents, (that is patterns have been written, proofed, corrected and retested.)Just as with socks, I am always experimenting.I still haven’t finished the socks I started more than a week ago. I admire Stephanie (aka the yarn harlot) goal of a sock a day, but I know I would not be able to sustain it. I have knit a pair of socks in as few as 3 day, (OK, so its not a sock a day, but then, she’s half a day behind, too)

But I rarely knit kid socks, and rarer still do I knit plain socks. Even my plainest socks usually have some interesting detail at the cuff, the heel or the toe. I almost never knit a duplicate pair of socks, and finally I often take notes, and document my designs.I love the look of hand dyed yarns in the skein, but I tend to dislike how they knit up. I seen lovely hanks of Koigu, and Lorna Laces, and other yarns. But I’ve never seen a pair of socks knit with these yarns that I really admire, let alone coveted.

I tend to gravitate to solid color sock yarn, or self striping yarn. And with solid yarn, I like interesting stitch patterns -- and I am always trying out new heels, or toes, or cast ons. My latest sock were inspired by images of socks in the Fall Vogue Knitting.

I liked reading about the shaped (arched) sole that Meg Swanson knit, based on one of her mother’s (EZ) designs, and the Cat Borhdi socks with the interesting gusset shaping.My “It’s raining gumdrops” sock are knit in Stahl sche Wolle “Socka 50” a generous gift from Barbara (aka KnitNerd) who hated the color. The stitch pattern is one from the Big Book of Stitches (Sterling Publications) --where its called the Acorn stitch (page 205 I think, but I could be wrong) It does look like an acorn in brown, but in hot pink, I think it looks more like gumdrops, (Or better still, a soon to be available, seasonal favorite, spice drops! Oh I love spice drops!)

The gusset is inverted, and the gusset decreases continue into the instep (similar to the sock Cat Bordhi designed). In addition, there are increases on the bottom of the sole. (just as in multi color socks designed by Meg Swanson), that shape the underside of the socks.My design, while not quite perfect, uses both of these innovations.I know I am going to continue experimenting with designs that use both these features, working to make them easier to knit, and more attractive.

I definitely like the way these changes improve the fit.The shaping not only wraps the sock around the foot, and especially helps it cling to the underside of the foot, but the sole of the foot ends up being longer (because of the increases, and the instep ends up being shorter, (because of the decreases) this results in less bunching at the point where the front of the ankle turns (from being vertical to horizontal.)